From Publishers WeeklyIn this eagerly anticipated but disappointing follow-up to The Fourth Angel, whatever foundations Chazin might have laid for a good thriller get buried beneath an exasperatingly overwritten and overwrought tale marred by contrived plot mechanisms. Fire marshal Georgia Skeehan and her veteran sidekick, Randy Carter, are called to investigate a fire that took the life of a retired doctor with a history of denying pensions to firefighters disabled in the line of duty. To complicate matters, Georgia's best friend, NYPD detective Connie Ruiz, confirms that there is talk of a bomb threat to a fuel pipeline under the city and that whoever is behind it knew the retired doctor. Fearing the fatal fire connects to other doctors formerly associated with the FDNY, they rush across town too late to save a second M.D. from a similar fate, and Mac Marenko, Georgia's supervisor and lover, accuses her of negligence. The entire situation ignites when Connie mysteriously disappears and Mac is found in her bullet-riddled, blood-splattered apartment, with no memory of what happened. Despite efforts to discourage her investigation, Georgia follows a trail of clues unearthing a connection between a toxic New York warehouse fire in the late 1970s and the current mayor's plans to erect a new football stadium on the site. Politics, greed, betrayal and cold-blooded murder: sadly, the elements of a dark, suspenseful story become ashes on a pyre of pulpy melodrama and artless crafting. And the somewhat tasteless however well-intended listing of all 343 members of the FDNY who died in the World Trade Center disaster may strike some as rather inappropriate for the dedication page of a commercial thriller.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From BooklistIn Chazin's second mystery, after the well-received Fourth Angel [BKL D 15 00], New York City fire marshal and single mom Georgia Skeehan investigates the deaths of two doctors, former members of the powerful One-B Board, who ruled on whether firemen qualified for the coveted line-of-duty pensions and whose many denials made them unpopular with the rank and file. With pressure from above to close the case quickly, Georgia slogs on, despite being shattered by the disappearance of her best friend,... read more --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book DescriptionThe fiery deaths of two doctors turn up the heat for New York fire marshal Georgia Skeehan. And when evidence surfaces indicating there is an arsonist-and a murderer-within the FDNY, Georgia faces blasts of betrayal from every direction.